Sneaking Suspicions
by Alasse Greyhame
Summary: Chap.5 in Hurting,Haunted, Hunted, Healing? Colonel Fury is forced to make some hard decisions.


Sneaking Suspicions

All previous disclaimers still apply. Only Gwyneth and other originals belong to me and I don't make any money from them. Marvel, Tolkien's and other characters belong to their respective owners and not to me I'm only borrowing them.

The shadow looked like a Sentinel and yet not the same it was not as gargantuan as the other models but it was not exactly small the other odd thing was that it was escaping the Blackbird's sensors and even with the Shiar upgrades that was hard thing to do. It watched the disappearing Blackbird but made no move to follow it. It just watched it disappear and then it disappeared out of the sky.

"Well Colonel?"

"Well what Mr. Secretary?"

"How do you feel about your 'friends' now?"

"Oh Logan says crap like that all the time and you and the others who voted you in have given the X Men cause to mistrust us."

"I want your analysis Colonel. Do you think they know anything?"

"Yeah Mr. Secretary, sir. They know lots of things that you don't."

"That is _**not**_ what I meant you militaristic fool. I meant do they know anything about what I've got planned for them."

"No, I don't think they know anything definite yet. But Logan has been in the intelligence game for longer than you have so don't even think that you will pull one over on him. Not to mention that they've two of the most powerful mind readers on the planet there too."

"And thieves that rob me blind. And strong men and women who'd break me in half. I know, I've seen the video on those freaks. And I'm not impressed."

"Those freaks have saved us from a lot of nasty customers Mr. Secretary, sir."

"Do you honestly think I give a damn, Colonel Fury."

"Obviously not sir."

"Anyway Colonel they didn't take out Raven Darkholme or Victor Creed. My creations did. And until your freak friends find out about them, we're safe enough."

"Live in your delusion, sir. What I'd like to know is why you took out Raven and Victor they had supposedly been under the control of X Factor and you killed them why?"

"They were killers Colonel. Unrepentant, mutant killers. I don't need to justify to you why they were killed. They deserved death."

"Last time I checked Mr. Secretary you weren't God and you can't decide things like who deserves death and life."

"Over those creatures and their more normal looking friends the people of this country have, Colonel and I will see the people's wishes done."

Colonel Fury thought, "This guy is utter loony tune. A complete Section Eight, if I ever saw one. He makes Creed sound sane. I'm beginning to wonder if Magneto isn't right and the Professor's dream is sort of useless."

The Secretary of Mutant Affairs went on talking like he had never noticed the Colonel's lapse in attention, " I got rid of Raven and Victor as you call them because they had seen Magneto's kids and some of the X Men take out Magneto and they were plotting revenge and as the Scarlet Witch and her brother might still be useful to me I couldn't have them killed by some deluded nutballs."

"Gee look who's talking about nutballs." Fury thought

"But how did you get the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to take out their dad?" Fury asked aloud

"Simple I sent an invitation to them to have dinner with me on some made up commendation award I was giving them for their work in Genoshah and the idiots bought it."

"That's not exactly what I meant, sir."

"Well then we're even for earlier you soft-hearted mutant lover."

"Excuse me sir, if I recall things correctly my position on the mutant question has never been a part of whether or not I can run S.H.I.E.L.D. so I'm going to ask you to take what you just said back."

"So you'll deny that you like these mutie freaks?"

"No sir I have a few and I do mean very few friends among the mutant population and some of them cannot be strictly labeled 'muties'".

"Meaning by that statement the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, I suppose."

"Exactly so, sir."

"Well then since the X Men are the only mutants you associate with I'll have to ask you for your sworn oath as a military officer of the United States Army not to tell them anything of what I'm going to tell you. And I'll have that oath now, Colonel."

Colonel Fury did some fast thinking Logan and the X Men had done him a few good turns and he had to let them know something but to do that would be to betray his country and that was a dilemma. He wanted to do the decent thing by Logan but oh hell Logan would have to find this out on his own anyway.

"You have it sir."

"Good if you really want to know how I got those two to take on their dad it was like this. I gave them dinner and in the dinner was a drug that put them into a slight daze. This daze let me hypnotize or brainwash them into believing that everything Mystique told them was true and Magneto was the source of all their problems."

"But if Mystique helped you why did you kill her?"

"It was a recording of Mystique I had made from different recordings and spliced together to say what I wanted her to say."

"But they saw her wherever you held this dinner sir. They'd swear she was there."

"Aha but what those brain dead morons saw was one of my little toys. Would you like to see one of them Colonel?"

"Yes, I would like to see one of these 'toys' sir."

"Very well, follow me please."

Fury followed the Secretary with an odd sense of unease he wondered now if swearing that oath had been the right thing to do after all. They left the office and walked down several halls and down several more halls to a place Col. Nicholas Fury was sure he'd never been in all his years spent in Washington. It was a long low hall filled with tables and on the tables were remnants of circuitry and other things. Those other things had horrible smells to them and the whole room just felt weird it gave off a vibe of watchfulness and a general air of creepiness that made him feel like he was back on the frontlines in the Army again waiting and watching for the first shot to be fired at him.

"Well, Colonel what do you think?"

"What do I think? I think this is messed up. What are these things you're making? What drives them? How do you use them? And why does it smell like rotting socks in here?"

"These 'things' are a next generation Sentinel. They are driven by magic. I use them for spying and for hunting down mutants. And as for the sock smell you get used to it if you're here for a while."

"OK fair enough. But how do you control them and if they are driven by magic what happens if they run into a more powerful magician than you?"

"Aren't we full of questions? I control them by magic they do what I say to and no more. And as yet I have found no one in the magical community who gives a damn about stopping me to try to wrest control from me."

"How far can these things go? Have you managed to get them inside the X Men's lair? What else can you do with these things?"

"Right now they can only go as far as the outskirts of Maryland, some parts of Northern Virginia, and the furthest extent southern New Jersey. No because no one except you knows where the X Men are based I haven't yet managed to get one there yet. One other draw back is that they have to be invited inside and I can't quite get rid of the creepy feeling they have to them for them to use subterfuge to get in. I haven't had time to explore other uses for them yet."

"So again Mr. Secretary why am I here?"

"You are here for two purposes Col. Fury. One is to help me find more ways to use my new Sentinels. Two is to give me the location of the X Men's home base."


End file.
